Contents:

Help Wanted -- Article Ideas

> Subject: Xwindows depth
> From: James Amendolagine uq274@freenet.victoria.bc.ca
>
> I have recently been messing with my x-server, and have managed
> to get a depth of 16, ie 2^16 colors. This works
> really nice with Netscape, but some programs (doom, abuse, and
> other games) wont work with this many colors. Do
> you know of a fix? I have tried to get X to support multiple
> depths--to no avail. The man-page suggests that some
> video cards support multiple depths and some don't. How do I know
> if mine does.
>
> I would really like to see an article on this subject,

I would like to say, yes, please someone help.... thought maybe a reply
would motivate someone a little more to write a article on this.

(All right a second request for help in this area. Anybody out there
with suggestions and/or wanting to write an article? --Editor)

I liked your comment about quilting being an interest. We tend to forget
that people have interests outside of computers in general (and linux in
particular).

Just like to say thanks for what is obviously an enormous effort you are
putting into the gazette. I'm new(ish) to linux and I find it a great
resource, not to say entertaining.

Has anyone suggested an article on the use of Xresources? As I said I'm
fairly new and find this a bit confusing... maybe someone would be
interested in an example or three?

Oh and with the quilting and geometry ... better make sure its not the
80x25+1-1 variety.

(Thanks, LG is a lot of work, as well as a lot of fun. And yes, I do have
a life outside of Linux. Anyone interested in writing about Xresources?
Thanks for writing. It's always nice to know we are attracting new readers.
--Editor)

I really like the resource Linux offers new users. I have already
applied a few tricks to my PC. I wish some one would explain how to use
the GNU C/C++ compiler with Linux. It is a tool resting in my hard
drive. With commercial compilers, there is a programming environment
that links libraries automatically. Are there any tricks to command line
C/C++ programming with Linux?? Stay online!

James Cannon

(Thanks for the tip. Online is the best place to be. Anyone out there
got some C++ help for this guy? --Editor)

I have been so far unsuccessful in finding information for InfraRed
support on Linux.

I am particularly interested in hooking up Caldera Linux on a Thinkpad 560
using Extended Systems JetEye Net Plus. Caldera on Thinkpad I can handle
but the JetEye allows connection to ethernet or token ring networks via IR.

My searches of Linux Resources page come up negative.
I have posted to USENET and also emailed any web master that has any mention
of ThinkPad or IR on their pages. Still no answer.

Can you help me to find information. If I am successful, I would be
willing to write an article about it.

Hong

(I have sent your question on to Linux Journal's Tech Support Column.
Answers from this source can be slow as author contacts companys
involved. Sounds like you have covered all the bases in your search --
can anyone out there help him?
If you write the article, I'll be happy to post it in the LG so next
person who needs this information will have a quicker answer. --Editor)

First I have to apologize for writing to this address with my problem, but I
don't no where to search for an answer and university's network is so
damned slow that surfing through the net searching for an answer makes no fun.
Another reason is that I've got no access to Usenet... means can't post in
comp.os.linux.networking... 8-((

I tried to find a news server near to Germany which allows posting without
using that damned -> identd
Here's the problem:
I want to setup Linux in our University's LAN but ran into problems, because
the LAN is VINES-IP based so that normal TCP/IP packet drivers won't work.
The admin says I do need a driver which can tunnel the normal Linux TCP/IP
packets into those VINES-IP packets, so that they can be send over the LAN to
that box which has Internet connection....

Maybe you know if such thing is available and/or where I can get it.
Or maybe you can give some Email-addresses for asking people which real
knowledge 'bout Linux (maybe even that of Linus T. himself) and it's drivers.

Hope you can help me 8-))

Thanks in advantage
Stefan 8-))

(I've sent your problem on to Linux Journal's Technical Support column
and will post it in Linux Gazette's Mailbag next month. Neither one
will give you a fast answer.

I did a search of LG, LJ and SSC's Linux Resources using VINES as the
keyword. I found only one entry from an author's biography. It's old --
March 1995 -- and the guy was in the marine corp then so may or may not
be a good address. Anyway here's what it said:
"Jon Frievald ... manages Wide Area Network running Banyan VINES. ...
e-mail to jaf@jaflrn.liii.com"

Anyway you might give him a try for help ideas.

For faster access to LG have you tried any of LG's mirror sites in
Germany:

Greetings. I was reading your article in the Linux Gazette, and thought
you might be interested to know that Lynx also has its own web site now at: http://lynx.browser.org/
It's up to version 2.6 now, and is rather nice, specially with slang
included :)

Duncan Hill, Student of the Barbados Community College

(Thanks for the tip! I really appreciate responses from readers;
confirms that there are really readers out there! --Larry Ayers)

(You must be looking at one of the mirror sites. I inadvertently left
those images out of the issue12 tar file that I made for the mirror
sites. When I discovered it yesterday, I made an update file for the
mirrors. Unfortunately, I have found that not all the mirrors are
willing to update LG more than once a month, so my mistakes remain
until the next month. Sorry for the inconvenience and thanks for writing.
--Editor)

i ftpgeted lg12 and untar.gz it as made with lg11.
lg11 was read as is: with graphics and so, but lg12... all graphics was
loosed.
i've verified hrefs and found out that href was written with principial
errors : i must copy all it to /images in my httpd server!!!!

this a pre-alpha version!!!

i can't do so unfixed products!!!

i'm sorry, but you forgotten how make a http-ready distrbutions... :)

Sergey Panskih

P.S. email me if i'm not true.

(I'm having a little trouble with your English and don't quite understand
what "all graphics was loosed" means. You shouldn't have to copy anything
anywhere: what are you copying to /images?

There is one problem I had that may apply to you. Are you throwing away
previous issues and only getting the current one? If so, I apologize
most humbly. I was not aware until this month that people were doing this
and when I made the tar file I included only new files and those that had
been changed since the last month. To correct this problem I put a new
tar file on the ftp site called standard_gifs.html. It's not that I've
forgotten how to make http-ready distributions, it's that I'm just learning
all the complexities. In the future I will make the tar file to include
all files needed for the current single issue, whether they were changed
or not.

I am very sorry to have caused you such problems and distress. --Editor)

It's clever and pretty, but the spiral notebook graphic still trashes the
left edge of letters printed in the issue 12 Mailbag.

Problem occurs using OS/2's Web Explorer version 1.2 (comes with OS/2 Warp 4.0).
Problem does NOT occur using Netscape 2.02 for OS/2 beta 2 (the latest beta
for OS/2).

Problem occurs even while accessing www.ssc.com/lg

Jep Hill

(Problem will always occur with versions of either Microsoft Explorer or
Netscape before 2.0. It is caused by a bug in TABLES that was fixed in
the 2.0 versions. I don't have access to OS/2's Web Explorer, so I can
only guess that it's the same problem. I'd recommend always using the latest
version of your browser. --Editor)

I run at a resolution of 1152x846 (a bit odd I suppose) and although the
Gazette pages look very nice indeed, it is a bit hard to read when I
have my Netscape window maximized. The bindings part of the background
seems to be optimized for a width of 1024 and thus tiles over again on
the right side of the page. This makes reading a bit difficult as some
of the text now overlaps the bindings on the far right.

I'm not sure if that's a great description of the problem, but I can
easily make you a screenshot if you want to see what I mean.

Anyhow, this is only a minor annoyance--certainly one I'm willing to
live with in order to read your great 'zine. :)

(Screen shot wont be necessary. When the web master first put the spiral
out there, the same thing happened to me -- I use a large window too, but not as large
as yours. He was able to expand it to fix it at that time. I notified him of
your problem, but not sure if he can expand it even more or not. We'll see.
Glad it's a problem you can live with. :-) --Editor)

This is just to let you people know, that there might be a slight problem.
I want to point out and make it perfectly clear that this is NOT a
complaint. I feel perfectly satisfied with the Linux Gazette as it is.

However sometimes I prefer to have a printed copy to take with me.
Therefore I used to print the LG. from Netscape. I'm using the new 3.1
version now. With the last two issues I have difficulties doing so.
All the pages with this new nice look don't print too well. The graphics
show up at all the wrong places and only one page is printed on the paper.
The rest is swallowed. Did you ever try to print it?

I had to use an ancient copy of Mosaic, that doesn't know anything about
tables, to print these pages. They don't look too good this way too, and
never did. I know this old Mosaic is buggy. At least it doesn't swallow
half of the stuff. This could as well be a bug in Netscape.
I know next to nothing about html.

Anyway, have fun.
Regards Friedhelm

(No, I don't try to print it, but will look into it. Are you printing out
"The Whole Damn Thing" from the TOC or trying to do it page by page?
It is out there in multi-file format and so if you print from say the Front Page,
the front page is all you'll get. "The Whole Damn Thing" is one single file
containing the whole issue, and the spiral and table stuff are removed so it
should print out for you okay. Let me know if this is already what you are
printing, so I'll know where to look for the problem. --Editor)

Amazing. I've just read the Linux Gazette from the first issue to this
one, the 12th (actually I read just the first 7 issues through, because
the others were not downloaded correctly).

It's 4 in the morning and I'm enthusiastic. I knew Linux was good, I'm
using it for a year (this is because of the lack of my english grammar,
I mean the previous sentence, well...), so I knew it was good, but I
didn't expect to see something so nice like this Gazette.

It's good to see that there are a WHOLE LOT of people with huge will to
share.

I just saw that issue #12 is out and accessible via WWW, but I can't find
the file on your ftp server nor on any mirrors.

(Sorry for the problems. We changed web servers and I went on vacation.
Somehow in the web server change, some of the December files got left
behind. I didn't realize until today that this had happened.
Sorry for the inconvenience. --Editor)

I visited your site recently and was astounded by the wealth of
information there.
I have lots of bandwidth to read your site. I noticed that you have
issues for download.
I Think it will be a great service to the LINUX community if you consider
publishing a CDROM (maybe from walnut creek cdrom) as a subscription
item.

pedro

(Yes, that is a good idea. I'll talk to my publisher about it. --Editor)

I have found myself trying to learn how to use Linux as a usenet server
to provide news feeds to people, and to use Linux as a IRC server.
Information on these topics are hard to come buy. If you have any
sources on these subjects that you can point me to I would be most
appreciative.

But any how, I have found an article in SysAdmin (Jan 96 (5.1)) that is
titled Using Linux as a Router, by johnathon Feldman. Is it possible to
reprint this article or get the author to write a new one for you?

TIA
Robert Binz

(I'll look into it. In the meantime, I've forwarded your letter to a guy I
think may be able to help you. --Editor)

While I realize that the economies of the LINUX biz require that there
be some method of making money even on the distribution of free and
"free" software, I have a request for them of us who 1) are currently
scraping for the cash for our Internet accounts and 2) would like to try
LINUX.

How about a one-shot download? I mean, oh, everything needed to
establish a LINUX system in one ZIP'ed (or tar/gz'd, though zip is a
more compatible format) file, one for each distribution?

I'm currently looking to establish LINUX on my "spare" PC, a 386DX-16
w/4 meg and a scavenged 2500MB IDE drive, etc. It will be relatively
slow, limited, lacks a CD-rom drive, but it's free, since the machine is
currently serving as a paperweight.

I could go out and buy a used CD-rom for the beast, or run a bastard
connection from my primary, indispensable work machine and buy the CDs.
But I am currently disabled and spending for these things has to be
weighed against other expenses (admittedly, I am certainly lucky and not
destitute, it would just be better)

I could get a web robot and download umpteen little files, puzzle them
out and put them together, though the load on your server would be
higher.

Or, under my proposed system, I could download Distribution Code,
Documents, and Major accessories in one group, then go back for the
individual bits and pieces I need to build my system.

Again, I realize that running your site costs money, and that people
make money, admirably little money, distributing LINUX on CDs, with the
big bucks (grin) of LINUX coming in non-free software, support and book
sales.

But if the system is to spread, providing a series of one-shot
downloads, possibly available only to individuals (I believe one could
copyright the *package* and require someone downloading to agree to use
it only on a single non-commercial system and not to redistribute, but I
am not an intellectual properties lawyer), to make life easier for them
of us who need to learn a UNIX-style system and build one on the cheap.